Pride, Freedom, and Humanity

I stopped in my tracks and stared at James. “Are you being serious?”

James nodded, “He would want to see you, Chloe.”

He’d want to see me? What if I wasn’t who he thought I was? What if he didn’t like me? This
was all way too much to take on.

“Come on, Chloe. We have another day till we get there. Plus we need to find a place to rest.”

I quietly followed behind James. All I could think about was my dad. What did he look like? What
happened to my mom? Was she still alive?

“You’re really quiet. I expected a lot of questions.”

“Can I get my memory back?”

James stopped then turned back toward me. “I don’t know. Your dad may have found a cure
since I left, but I don’t know.”

I nodded then began walking again. “So when do we stop?”

“There should be a clearing just up ahead. Are you hungry?”

“Not really…but I know that I should try eating something.”

“I’ll build a fire and go hunting. You can rest.”

“No, I need to help. I’ll build the fire.”

James only smiled. Eventually we reached the clearing that James was talking about. It was
beautiful. The grass was a deep healthy green, the trees around stood as a giant protective wall and
a creek ran down the middle giving off a nice gentle sound. Then once I looked up, the stars covered
the darkened sky.

“Pretty isn’t it?” James had a huge grin.

“That’s an understatement.”

He chuckled, “Right, well I shall go hunt. What do you prefer to eat? Rabbit, bird fish, deer,
berries?”

“It’s dark…Shouldn’t we rest?” I glanced around unable to really see much.

“I can hunt without light,” He reassured me. “So, what do you want?”

“Whatever you can find then…” I didn’t like the idea of him leaving me alone out here. Even if he
would hardly be far away…Being in the dark never ended good for me.

“Why don’t you start on that fire?” He tossed me a package of matches that bounced off my
chest and hit the grass before I could catch it. He laughed, “It should be easier using those to light it.”
Then he disappeared into the deep darkness leaving me alone.

I looked around everywhere before shaking off the chills I was getting and moving to find some
sticks. Why did I have to be so afraid of being alone out here? Nothing was going to happen to me.
Besides James couldn’t be that far away.

After gathering fallen branches and dry twigs all around, I had enough to make a decent fire. I
could even make the fire last through the night if need be. I stacked the sticks into a teepee shape
then put some of the dry twigs underneath it with pine needles to help light it. The package of
matches was in my pocket, so I grabbed it and lit it before dropping it into the fire. In a couple
minutes the fire roared to life.

I sat next to the fire and began hoarding as much heat as I could. I wasn’t cold, but the heat
was something I hadn’t felt in such a long time. I was beginning to get worried because as time
dragged on there was no sign of James anywhere. He could just be searching for food but what if
something found him? Or someone…

Suddenly I heard the leaves behind me rustling. I was quick to pull my gun out and turn to the
noise. I raised it up and searched around but I saw nothing. I could hear my heart beat in my head as
my breathing slowly returned to normal. My gun inched down to my side and I let out a sigh of relief.
It must’ve been just an animal or bird of some sort.

Just as I was about to put my gun away and get back to relaxing, a black shadow jumped out
and pinned me to the ground. I yelped in surprise when I felt a tongue licking my face. I tried pushing the animal away, but it’s body was too heavy. My hands were buried in its soft fur, its paws were on
my shoulders and something kept hitting my knees.

Eventually it stopped and got off me. That’s when I realized that it was a dog. It sat down with
its tongue hanging out and a tail thumping on the ground. What was a dog doing out here alone? I
thought dogs were completely killing machines. This one wasn’t. This one just wanted to play.

“Chloe?” James came out with a huge elk that he was dragging. “What’s a dog doing here?”

“She came out of nowhere…”

“It looks nice.” James muttered as he dropped his elk by the fire.

I nodded then stood up. “Come here Doggy.” I called to it.

The dog ran up to me and jumped onto my chest once again, but this time I didn’t fall. I began
petting the dogs head and scratching its sides earning a really fast tail-wag.

“I think it likes you.”

I laughed, “I think so.” That’s when I began noticing the patches of fur on her that was missing.
She had random slashes across her back that left a long streak of skin. Was she hurt from another
animal?

“Well, are you ready to cook this thing?” James pulled out his knife and began cutting away the
fur.

As soon as he pulled out the knife, the dog quickly dropped its tail and whined. I looked at
James with nervous look. Why was she afraid of knives? Did someone hurt her?

“You don’t think someone hurt her do you?” I pat her hand and tried calming her down.

“I don’t know-“

“Well, well well. Look at what Blackie found.” A group of four men stepped out from behind a
tree and walked toward the fire.

They were all dressed in cam clothes with orange vests and an animal skinned hat on their
head. They weren’t skinny either. A huge beer belly could be seen on each and every one of them.
The two in the back had five o’clock shadows with grease and grime covering their skin that was
apparent when the light of the fire shined off it. One had no facial hair at all and the other had a
beard that grew down past his neckline with food from his last meal still in it. Each of them had a
shot gun in their hand that pointed at James and me.

“No sudden movements,” The bearded one smiled revealing his yellow teeth.

As they moved in, the dog’s tail fell between her legs and she whined again like she was
scared. Quickly she ran behind me and used me as a shield from them.

I backed up until James was beside me. The men quickly walked around the fire and began
warming themselves up as they shed from their big coats and vests.

“You know we wouldn’t have found you if it weren’t for the fire.” The one with no beard spoke.
He had to be in his mid-forties.

I looked over at James to see him glaring daggers at them. Why wasn’t he doing anything? Did
he think there was no way out of this?

“Hey, Tom. There is a lovely young lady with us.” I looked back over to see huge grins on all of
their faces.

“Yes, Tim. We should do something about that.” They began walking toward me.

“Stay back,” I mumbled, not able to find my voice. I trudged back until I felt cold water envelope
my foot.

“Leave her alone.” James was in front of me with a knife held out in front of him.

“Boy, don’t be a hero. We will just have our way with her then be on our merry way.” Tom said.

I continued to walk back until the water was up to my knees. I searched for anything that may
help. All I saw were trees and vines. A miracle was what we needed.

James looked back at me then mouthed one word. Run. He wanted me to run and leave him
behind? Even if I did leave, where would I go? No, I couldn’t run. I had to stay and fight.

I stopped where I was and looked at the pigs walking toward me. I was tired of running and
tired of never getting to rest. Most of all, I was tired of creeps wanting to put their hands all over me.

“That’s it girl. Come here.” They started patting their legs and whistling to me as though I was a
dog.

James held out his arm to stop me, but I pushed through. I glanced back at him then pointed at
the gun in his pocket. He gave me a nod in understanding then turned toward me.

Once I reached the shore, one of them grabbed my arm and yanked me up, causing me to yelp.
Instantly the black dog ran up and bit Tom’s hand making him reel back in horror. My arm was
released and I fell back onto the ground.

James pulled out his gun like an old western cowboy and started shooting at them without
hesitation. My eyes widened at the blood splatters exiting into the air as they all fell to the ground and
lay motionless. I couldn’t move. My whole body was trembling at what just happened.

“Are you okay?” James knelt down beside me, keeping his eyes on their bodies. His voice
seemed distant.

Only after a couple seconds did I realize that Blackie was barking at them. My eyes were ringing
so loud that everything seemed to zone out.

“Chloe, are you okay?”

This time I nodded at him. He grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet then carefully
staggered over to the bodies with his gun raised once again.

“They are dead. We got really lucky.” He lowered his gun and his body was sudden less tense
as his shoulders dropped.

“We were lucky? If it weren’t for their abuse to Blackie I would’ve been…”

“Why didn’t you run?”

“What good would it have done?”

He shook his head, “You have to do as I say from now on, okay?”

I only nodded. Why did I need to be the one running? I could have saved his life too.

“Let’s cook this food and then rest…” James moved back to the elk’s body and resumed cutting
the skin.

He just killed four men and he was acting like it never happened. I walked over to the bodies
and took a glimpse down at them. Their camo clothes hid the blood from revealing its bright red self,
but most of it had dark blotches now. It was weird seeing these men lying so motionless after they
had just been moving not five minutes ago.

Blackie licked my hand, bringing me back to the world. I gently pet her head then walked past
the bodies and sat next to the fire. The warmth wasn’t as appealing as before. Blackie laid down
beside me and placed her head on my lap. Soon enough sleep started triggering the exhaustion in my
body so I laid back and let it take over.